The present disclosure relates generally to protective helmets such as ballistic helmets or other helmets having a similar construction, such as a ballistic tactical helmet for use by law enforcement personnel, military field or combat helmets, or the like. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a helmet edge trim and a helmet employing same with integral wiring for routing electrical power or signals to one or more electrical or electronic accessory devices or components attached or mounted to the helmet.
Commonly, a military ballistic helmet or the like is configured with mounts, brackets, or the like to carry one or more accessories or attachments, such as a flashlights, viewing optics and devices, such as a monocular, binoculars, monocular or binocular night vision (NVG) devices (including passive night vision devices and enhanced night vision (eNVG) devices), thermal imaging devices, cameras, friend or foe identification (IFF) systems, communications devices, and so forth.
To connect accessories to an electrical source, a wiring harness may be routed along the interior of the helmet. However, an internally routed wire harnesses may be subject to chemical attack due to perspiration, damaged through impact with the wearer's head, and so forth. In addition, an internally routed wiring harness may require one or more holes or vias through the ballistic material of the helmet, thus compromising the antiballistic properties of the helmet in these regions. Alternatively, a wire harness may be routed externally over the exterior surface of the helmet. However, external wiring harnesses may be cumbersome and susceptible to failure.
In addition, the number and complexity of helmet mounted components is increasing, with such components often including computer or microcontroller-based devices controlled through the use of electronic signals and sensors. This results in the need for larger and more complex wiring assemblies and poses difficulties in installing such devices while maintaining the ballistic integrity of the helmet.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved helmet construction and method having an integrated accessory mounting and electrical interconnection device which could replace the wiring typically used for electrical power, data, and/or signal transmission and which would reduce wiring complexity, simplify helmet assembly and device attachment.